Eating attitudes in a diverse sample of Israeli adolescent females: a comparison study.

OBJECTIVES To estimate the eating attitudes in Israeli Jewish female adolescents. METHODS A representative sample of 1270 females in grades 7-12 from five different Israeli schools from five different residential areas were assessed by EAT-26. RESULTS Of the total sample, 19.5% were identified as having abnormal eating attitudes. In terms of age, the 16 year olds were found to have the significantly highest rate of total and positive EAT-26 scores. As for school subgroups, the secular boarding schools had the significantly highest rate and the kibbutz had the lowest rate of positive EAT-26 scores for the total and for all subscales. DISCUSSION EAT-26 was found to be a useful tool for screening and identifying at-risk groups in a large adolescent Israeli population.